a blog for the dolls

Archive for July, 2014

Here are some photos from my most recent vacation! I went to Illinois (and a little bit of Iowa) and I brought Chrissa.

First stop: breakfast at Cracker Barrel:

Then we hit the road and headed out to Nauvoo, Illinois. Nauvoo is a tiny village on the banks of the Mississippi. It was settled by the Mormons in the 19th century, and they lived there for a few years before they got kicked out and headed to Utah. The church has since bought back the property and made a really fun historical site. And it’s free to all visitors!

We started our day with a wagon ride:

We also visited the blacksmith shop:

The blacksmith let Chrissa keep the little horseshoe he made!

Here’s a cute wagon outside the blacksmith shop. Only the first few families to leave Nauvoo for Utah were able to take advantage of wagons. They didn’t have enough time or labor to build everyone a wagon. They also ran out of able horses and oxen.

We also visited the drug store and general store:

Then we went to the brickyard:

They give everyone a free souvenir brick!

Outside the brickyard, we ran into a doll I thought was Caroline, but if you look closer this doll has blue eyes and line brows, so isn’t Caroline. But she was dressed the same way that my Caroline dressed when we went to Mackinac Island last summer!

There was also a cool plow outside the brickyard:

We also made rope and yarn, visited the bakery, watched 2 shows and went to the pageant. It was a really fun time. I highly recommend a visit to anyone in the area, church members and not. It was a fun pioneer village. Temple’s pretty too:

The temple was rebuilt in 2002, but here’s a sunstone from the original temple, that was torched and then blown off the map by a couple tornadoes:

We stayed 2 nights in Nauvoo, and we headed a few miles down the road to Carthage, Illinois on Friday morning. Carthage is the county seat of Hancock county. Joseph Smith was in the jail when he was killed. The Carthage Jail is now an important historic site for the church. Here’s a statue of Joseph and his brother Hyrum (also killed at the jail):

Then I begged my friends in the car to cross the river into Iowa. Iowa is now the 44th state I’ve ever been to. We ate lunch there:

After lunch we headed back to Chicago. We spent Saturday at Valarie’s family’s house. One of her nieces has a very nice hand-me-down Kirsten:

Don’t you love Kirsten’s jacket? Valarie’s brother took his daughters to a Cub’s game this summer and they gave them away. The best part: each jacket came with a coupon to give to a friend, and they gave a coupon to me! The next day I took the coupon to American Girl Place in Chicago and got my own jacket for free! So cool!!

So on Sunday we went to Chicago. I didn’t take a lot of photos of Chrissa in Chicago because McKenna has already visited Chicago, but I did take a photo of Chrissa and Chrissa:

And on Monday we headed home. It was a pretty good vacation. The weather was very cooperative. I’m ready to plan my next vacation. Maybe Canada, maybe one of the 6 states I haven’t seen yet (which are Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama by the way). That’s in October. I might try to squeeze in a quick getaway before that. Stay tuned!

Alexi in Slam Dunk, Leonie in Melody in Blue, Taryn in Summerhill Stroll, Saila in Jenna’s original outfit and Sports Energy Pack (this outfit has recently been through a much-needed update), Jenna in her snowsuit, and Brianne is wearing Taryn’s outfit (which is a bit too pale for Brianne).

about this blog

My name is Marjorie. In most respects I am a grown up, in that I'm old enough to be a grown up and I have a full time job. I'm Marjorie. I'm a grown up. I love my dolls. I'm a Mormon.
I have recently decided to dedicate this blog to my dolls. Maybe I think they need to make more friends on the internet. I currently collect American Girl, Maplelea, A Girl for All Time, and Carpatina. I have others too...I look forward to you meeting all of my dolls. Have a nice day.